


Fjull Circle

by mindoverantimatter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Deep Conversations, Gen, Google translated German, I feel Support in this Tiny Hut tonight, Spoilers for episode 99, Talking on Watch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24692269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mindoverantimatter/pseuds/mindoverantimatter
Summary: Beau and Fjord talk about the future.based on this tumblr post (https://jesterbeaus.tumblr.com/post/620677586444517376/freckledmccree-freckledmccree)It's been 84 years since I last wrote anything. I'm sure it shows.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	Fjull Circle

“Do you have any plans for after?”

Beau’s rough voice brought Fjord’s attention away from the bleak badlands of Xhorhas, back to the dim interior of the tiny hut. His fingers stilled for a moment, pulling away from where he had been drawing circles in the dirt.

“After what?” he asked quietly, turning slightly toward the monk at his back. They were leaning against one another near the center of the hut, close to Caleb where the hut was warmest. Even still, his breath fogged when he spoke.

“After all this shit,” he felt Beau shrug against his back and saw her gesture vaguely around them.

“If there is an after.” 

Beau elbowed him lightly (for her) in the kidney. “Don’t talk like that, you know what I mean.”

Fjord sighed, looking out to the empty horizon and rubbed the metal of his breastplate over the phantom pain in his chest. Even though the wound was long healed, it still bothered him on quiet nights. He had transitioned from picking at his tusks to tracing old scars, knowing how close he was to never returning from the deep. With effort, Fjord dropped his hand back to the ground and began drawing circles again. 

“I know.”

There was a long silence. Fjord could feel Beau trying not to push, but getting antsy for a response.

“I used to want to retire to the coast. Be a fisherman with tall tales of the adventures of my prime. Be alone on the water, just working with my hands.”

“Used to,” Beau had fully turned around, almost dumping Fjord’s weight onto a sleeping Caduceus. “You said used to.” Fjord kept his eyes on the moonlit landscape. He knew the look Beau was leveling at him, and he knew that she would not give up on getting an answer. He sighed.

“Yeah, used to. Something changed with the Stone family. Something changed with Melora. It made me realize that good is something you have to work towards, you have to tend to. Fate is not something that you can just leave to pasture. I don’t want to say that things happen for a reason, it’s just that things happen to me whether I like it or not. I have a debt to pay forward to the world or something. I don’t know, I’m still figuring it out.”

“Sounds deep,” Beau said in a way that meant ‘sounds boring’. She had a knack for seeing through his deflection. “What about now? Now what do you want?”

Fjord sighed again.

“I’ve been thinking of returning to Port Demali. Taking over the orphanage I grew up in. I know it sounds stupid-”

“Not stupid,” Beau interupted before he could spiral.

“I have this scenario I’ve conjured up where I sail into port and buy out the owners. Give them money they can’t refuse to just pack up and leave. Or threaten them. Or just make them disappear into the night. Kinda depends on my mood.”

Beau leaned against him again, supporting his weight. “I get that.”

“Just anything to start over. Keep the kids from going through what I went through. Build my own menagerie,” Fjord chuckled to himself. His eyes tracked the path of some large leathery waterfowl across the dark sky, watching until it disappeared from sight in case it came too close for comfort. Silence broken only by the soft sleeping sounds of his friends filled his ears like warm white noise.

He was almost certain Beau had fallen asleep against him when she spoke again.

“I don’t know a lot about good dads, but I think you’d be the least shitty one.” 

“Thanks, Beau. That means a lot.”

Caleb turned over in his bedroll, sitting up with eyes still closed.

“What’s the matter Caleb?” Fjord asked, one hand reaching for the pommel of his dismissed falchion.

“Es ist Zeit, die Uhr zu wechseln. Ich meine-” Caleb cleared his throat - “it’s 3 in the morning. It’s time to change watch.” The wizard shuffled out of his bedroll, waking Veth as he dumped her unceremoniously from the end of it.

After convincing Veth to put down the crossbow, Fjord laid down in his own bedroll between Jester and Caduceus. Beau took Caleb’s vacated spot in the middle of the group. No matter where she went to sleep, she would end up laying tangled with someone.

The background noise of Caleb stoking the fire and the slight snore of Caduceus behind him lulled Fjord to the edge of sleep. As his body relaxed against the padded ground, the sound of distant waves called to him.

“WAIT, does that mean I get to be the cool aunt who gives the kids dangerous things?” Beau’s voice cut through the silence, waking Fjord up immediately.

“Go to sleep, Beau,” the Mighty Nine chorused. Fjord smiled and buried his face into his blanket.

After could wait. The now was pretty nice.


End file.
